Latest news with #TimLewis
Yahoo
07-03-2025
- Science
- Yahoo
Palm Beach County residents shoot video of Elon Musk's Starship breaking apart
Elon Musk's SpaceX spacecraft Starship broke up during its uncrewed test flight Thursday, March 6 and burning debris could be seen from much of Florida's east coast including Palm Beach County. Tim Lewis of West Palm Beach caught the Starship's break up about a half mile south of Southern Boulevard in West Palm Beach. It was SpaceX's eighth flight test of its Starship spacecraft. Starship's January flight exploded in the sky. Musk called January and Thursday's break ups a "rapid unscheduled disassembly." The debris shot through the sky and temporarily affected flights at some airports. Robert Cardona shot a video of Starship breaking apart as seen over Bryant Park in Lake Worth Beach on Thursday. SpaceX on Thursday lost communication with the rocket just over nine minutes after the launch. The 400-foot spacecraft, composed of both the Starship vehicle and Super Heavy rocket, launched just after 6:30 p.m. Thursday from SpaceX's Starbase in Boca Chica near Brownsville, Texas. The Federal Aviation Administration said in a statement to USA TODAY Thursday that it activated a debris response area and "briefly slowed aircraft outside the area where space vehicle debris was falling or stopped aircraft at their departure location." Greg Chin, a spokesman with the Miami-Dade Aviation Department, said that "some flights" were delayed at Miami International Airport between 7 and 7:30 p.m. "due to falling debris from the SpaceX launch over the Atlantic Ocean." This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Post: SpaceX's Starship breaks apart and can be seen from South Florida
New York Times
06-03-2025
- Business
- New York Times
Arsenal fans are being asked to pay more – but will that money be poured back into the team?
The news that Arsenal have decided to raise ticket prices for 2025-26 was buried by the avalanche of goals they scored in Eindhoven. In the build-up to Tuesday's game, it emerged the club are set to increase men's-team ticket prices by between three and five per cent for next season. Arsenal's official confirmation followed the next day — if there's ever a good time to break bad news, the day after a 7-1 victory in the first leg of a Champions League knockout-phase tie might well be it. Advertisement The headline is that Arsenal have decided to raise prices at a time when some other Premier League clubs have agreed to a freeze. The Football Supporters' Association (FSA) has led a nationwide campaign calling on teams to 'Stop Exploiting Loyalty' and several of them, including Liverpool, Brentford, Wolves and West Ham, have confirmed they will not be raising prices for 2025-26. There will undoubtedly be some frustration among supporters that Arsenal have not followed suit. The cost of a general admission 23-match season ticket in the Emirates Stadium's upper tier will increase by three per cent, and by five per cent in its lower tier. Fans in the upper tier will pay an average of £44 ($56.60) more next season; in the lower tier, it will average out to an additional £56. Arsenal's most expensive general admission season ticket, for 23 home games in the centre of the upper tier, will cost £2,112.50 in 2025-26. A seat behind the goals or in a corner of the lower tier will cost £1,126.50. The club's 2023-24 financial results, released in February, showed revenues increasing from £466.7million to a record £616.6m. Matchday income rose by 28 per cent to £131.7m for last season, taking them above neighbours Tottenham to be second only to Manchester United in the Premier League. This price hike could see income rise again by several million pounds. At a time when the club speak proudly of diverse revenue streams and improving commercial performance, supporters may understandably ask why they are being squeezed. Explanations about the costs of running an elite football club would doubtless fall on more sympathetic ears if they did not follow so soon after a winter transfer window which left many Arsenal fans aggrieved at the club's decision not to buy. The club did engage in considerable dialogue with fans before declaring the price hike. Advertisement Three meetings were held with the Arsenal Advisory Board (AAB) — a group comprised of elected supporter representatives. Managing director Richard Garlick was present at all of those meetings, while executive vice-chair Tim Lewis attended one and co-chairman Josh Kroenke, whose father Stan owns the club, contributed to another. While there was naturally disappointment at the decision to raise the cost of admission, Arsenal did at least engage in meaningful dialogue and show a willingness to adapt plans to address fans' concerns. A poll by the Arsenal Supporters' Trust from May 2024 showed 80 per cent of their members backed the introduction of a 19-game season ticket — that is, one which is for home Premier League matches only. Arsenal have now agreed to meet this long-standing request. This will mean reducing the upfront cost of a season ticket by approximately 20 per cent. A statement from the supporters' trust said they 'recognise the goodwill the club have shown in following up on their commitment last year to carefully review the case for this change'. This tweak will have the added benefit of making more cup-tie tickets available to the club's silver and red members — two different tiers of paid membership schemes which give access to ticket ballots and other perks. Nineteen-game season-ticket holders will be entitled to purchase their seat for domestic cup ties too, but for any European matches these seats will go into the silver member ballot. Arsenal will monitor and review this policy over the course of next season. Alternatively, fans can purchase a 23-game season ticket, which includes four European games as standard, assuming Arsenal qualify for one of the three UEFA competitions. Season-ticket holders of any kind must use or sell their ticket for at least 85 per cent of games, or risk losing their seat for the following season. Arsenal also continue to battle touts. So far this season, they say they have identified and cancelled more than 26,156 accounts attempting to obtain tickets in unauthorised ways. Advertisement One aspect of the Stop Exploiting Loyalty campaign the club did address was fears over the removal of concessions. Arsenal upheld their commitment to concessionary tickets for under-18s, 18-to-24-year-olds, disability access members and seniors. They have also increased the size of the 18-24 allocation by 1,000, enabling 4,000 young adults to attend games at reduced prices. The club will also recognise the 40th anniversary of their Arsenal in the Community charity by making 1,000 tickets available free of charge to local fans. One outstanding issue surrounds the classification of games in the Champions League's opening phase as category A or B matches, assuming Arsenal qualify for that competition. This makes them among the most expensive fixtures to attend, even though many supporters will see qualification to the knockout rounds via the new 36-team league format as little more than a formality. There is good news and bad news, then, amid this ticketing update. Arsenal have undoubtedly made concessions, but it is difficult to look beyond the hard fact of the price increase. The club point to the spiralling costs of competing at the top ends of both the Premier League and Champions League. Those 2023-24 financial results saw the club's overall wage bill balloon by some 40 per cent to £328million but that is still only the fifth highest in the Premier League — Arsenal are aware further investment will be required to make them serial winners again. GO DEEPER What Arsenal's historic win against PSV does and doesn't say about Mikel Arteta's team There may also be a clash of cultures at play here. Arsenal are owned by Kroenke Sports and Entertainment, a company which also runs several U.S. sports teams. Compared to the cost of watching live sport in North America, where dynamic pricing models are often in play, the Premier League can appear good value. The average ticket price in the National Football League (NFL) was $120 (£93.30) for the 2023-24 season, according to Statista, and there's been a steady rise in their cost over the past 15 years. That sits at odds with the English tradition of football being an affordable game for working-class people. Advertisement The price hike is yet another factor that adds pressure to a summer at Arsenal that was already going to be under considerable scrutiny. If supporters are being asked to pay more, they will expect to see that outlay turned into considerable investment in the team — and for success to follow.
Yahoo
31-01-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Why Arsenal v Man City is the Premier League's most bitter rivalry
If the Arsenal and Manchester City squads are readying themselves for 'war' on Sunday, the mood isn't that different off the pitch. There are few polite niceties there. This is probably the club relationship with the deepest animosity in the Premier League, and even worse than some notorious rivalries from the past. September's 2-2 draw had more fallout than any other match this season so far, and that's despite this campaign's many refereeing controversies. One official at a rival club even marvelled at how the fallout had gone into 'day six'. That 2-2 had opprobrium about referees and much more, including a farrago over footage of Arsenal executive vice-chairman Tim Lewis leaving his seat without shaking hands with City counterparts. There was some irritation about that in north London, especially since they feel City's senior figures don't always welcome them. The champions meanwhile see Arsenal as one of the clubs most actively in opposition to their ownership. Crucially, some of this has filtered down to the dressing rooms. Antipathy is so strong that, when details came out about City Football Group pursuing Arsenal target Sverre Halseth Nypan through its Spanish club, Girona, some around the Emirates suspected it was just to drive up their price. Girona's interest was nevertheless genuine. As petty as some of that sounds, recruitment forms a central theme ahead of this match, fittingly coming just before deadline day. That's both in terms of where the teams are and what recruitment represents. It should be stressed that key figures at Arsenal, including Lewis, outright believe that states or state-linked figures shouldn't own football clubs, as is the case with Abu Dhabi's Sheikh Mansour. Others in the game fairly say the same should apply to billionaires like Stan Kroenke. There is nevertheless another dimension to that, given how people in the Premier League see Arsenal as essentially leading a group of American ownerships in pushing the stance that sporting competition can't work properly if it includes state-linked ownership. The argument is that you are ultimately dealing with a greater level of power, which is almost impossible to regulate. Sources close to the top of the Premier League say that this is a split that has become increasingly apparent over the last two years, amid wider developments in global football and the announcement of the Premier League charges against City in 2023. This is in some ways the future of football: the US against the Gulf. Such dynamics give City more ground for complaints that other clubs target them, even if it isn't 'a cartel'. The Premier League was duty-bound to investigate the 2018 Football Leaks that precipitated these charges. What is perhaps more relevant is how some clubs would push for the strongest possible punishment if guilt is proven. Or, as Pep Guardiola put it, for City to be 'wiped off the face of the Earth'. The champions are meanwhile part of their own voting bloc, which includes Newcastle United, Aston Villa and Nottingham Forest. This runs deeper. People at Arsenal still talk bitterly about how their club was the first big victim of 'the sportswashing era'. Arsene Wenger coined 'financial doping' amid a period where City signed a series of Arsenal's best players. Some players on Sunday would gladly emulate Emmanuel Adebayor's notorious celebration from September 2009, especially after the bad blood of the 2-2 earlier this season. Those at the Etihad meanwhile talk of how they were instantly made to feel like outsiders at Uefa meetings after the 2008 takeovers. Even the arguments about state-linked ownership, however, ultimately settle on clubs' ability to compete – which comes back to the market. City figures would willingly point to how much Arsenal have spent on transfer fees, such as their signing of Declan Rice. Those at Highbury state their wage bill is still much lower. For the 2023-24 season, where Mikel Arteta's team lost the league by two points, his squad's wage bill was around £318m compared to City's £400m. There also remains resentment about Arteta's move from City to Arsenal in December 2019. The Etihad hierarchy have never been happy with how that process went. Arsenal subsequently found extreme resistance to Arteta's attempt to bring over two staff members, including set-piece specialist Nicolas Jover. That same staff, meanwhile, have long noted how Guardiola and his team don't quite 'pat them on the head' like they used to. All this further fires the emotion around the game, as well as – crucially – the different positions of the clubs. One of the reasons there has been such frustration at Arsenal is because there had been such focus on finally besting City. It even influenced recruitment decisions, like having a more robust midfield. Instead, a series of factors have combined to ensure Arteta's team are off where they were last season, but in a campaign where City have fallen off. That has created this angst, as Arsenal are aware they will be criticised if Liverpool effectively leapfrog them to the title. That awareness is also driving a message to keep calm and look at the bigger picture. Arsenal feel that years of recruitment planning has put them in a place where they are only a few details away from having an elite team for half a decade. They do want a forward in this window, having enquired about Aston Villa's Ollie Watkins, with a big push ongoing for Bayern Munich's Mathys Tel. That is nevertheless measured against an insistence on ensuring any signing is in-keeping with that more calculated long-term planning. The ideal player up front is Benjamin Sesko, but Leipzig's Champions League chase means it would cost an extra £50m to get him now rather than in the summer. That could impinge plans to 'complete' the squad by bringing in Spanish midfielder Martin Zubimendi, a Sesko-style striker and a wide forward such as Bournemouth's Antoine Semenyo, who Arsenal greatly admire. The danger is of course in constantly looking to the future. City, after years of being so well run, could meanwhile be criticised for not looking to the future enough. This January's business feels like a belated squad overhaul that was long needed. Guardiola's Champions League-winning side had gone stale. Other clubs have still been a bit baffled by some of the business, as well as Erling Haaland's new contract, especially as regards what they mean for the hearing. They probably don't mean anything, given that nobody yet knows how it will conclude. All anyone outside the hearing can really say is that it is known to have been a 'very disciplined' process so far. City's business can even be interpreted in terms of both main potential outcomes. If they are cleared, there is no issue with expenditure. If they are found guilty and heavily punished, they've already future-proofed the squad. Arsenal are preparing a second bid for Aston Villa striker Ollie Watkins, while Villa are deciding whether to sell Watkins or Jhon Duran. Duran is reportedly undergoing a medical with Al-Nassr. Bayern Munich's Mathys Tel has expressed his desire to leave, sparking interest from Premier League clubs. Tottenham have reportedly agreed a £50m deal, but Manchester United believe they have an advantage in the race, which also includes Chelsea and Arsenal. United's pursuit of Tel may depend on selling Alejandro Garnacho, with a new price set for Chelsea. Marcus Rashford is also looking for a move away from Manchester United, but Juventus appears to be the only viable option this January. Chelsea have joined West Ham and Everton in the pursuit of Brighton striker Evan Ferguson, while Brighton have rejected a bid from Al-Nassr for Kaoru Mitoma. Aston Villa are reportedly interested in Chelsea's Joao Felix and PSG's Marco Asensio, while also considering a bid for Wolves striker Matheus Cunha as a potential replacement for Duran. Follow latest updates More immediately, they now have a squad with more depth and pace for Sunday, and probably more than Arsenal given the injuries. Against that, however, Arteta's side look far more defensively robust than a porous City. The latter have a profound fragility that is there to be exploited. Even Brugge did it. City also have that sense of superiority that comes from being repeat champions. That is what Arsenal want. That is why Arsenal took solace in 'rattling' them after that 2-2. Both are in each other's heads. Neither, however, are in top spot. The Premier League's most acrimonious rivalry has suddenly become a sub-plot in a larger story. Given football's modern geopolitics, though, that isn't just about chasing down Liverpool.
